5/04/2009 @ 7:00PM

In Depth: America's Top 25 Towns To Live Well

To determine the best towns in which to live well, Forbes teamed with
ZoomProspector.com, a San Francisco-based consulting firm specializing in corporate relocation. Because geographical definitions range widely, we used the term “town” to describe every city, town, borough or Census-designated-place under 100,000 people. To rank each town, we looked at median income; average commute; distance to highways and airports; per capita venture capital funding; per capita number of small businesses, sole-proprietorships and start-ups; the percentage of the population with bachelor’s degrees or higher; the share of professional-level workers as defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS); the percentage of young and educated people, or those 25-34 with a bachelor’s degree or higher; and the percentage of foreign-born residents with a bachelor’s degree or higher. We also measured the per capita number of restaurants, bars, museums and cultural institutions.

10. Foster City, Calif.

Population: $29,081

Location: South of San Francisco and north of Redwood City

Median income: $119,780

Strongest categories: Home to many top companies, big and small, including Visa International, Sony Computer Entertainment America and Sling Media, Foster City ranks first on our list for its share of highly skilled workers, particularly with a background in tech, and in the top five for its per capita number of patents.

Drawbacks: There isn’t much happening in Foster City. There are plenty of office parks, but it offers few cultural institutions and restaurants.